Why You Need Shade to Complement Your Playground Design

While not all playgrounds have shade structures, they offer a host of benefits for children and adults alike. The humble and often overlooked shade structure doesn’t just shield you from the sun, it contributes to the play value and overall aesthetic appeal of your park or school playground equipment. This article will unwrap all that we have to offer in the shade department and why they have advantages for all.

Shade Options

Urban Play’s shade structures start from aerodynamic shade sails, through to complex skillion airflow structures, and finish with your traditional hard roofed structures. Shade sails and skillion structures are built from UV resistant fabrics that provide up to 98% protection. They can be made into your choice of colour to complement the theme of your park playground, and they can be erected into eye-catching three-dimensional shapes. Hard roofed structures can also be built into visually stunning designs, and all of our shades are built with top quality materials according to Australian engineering standards.

The benefits

It’s easy to forget just how easy it is to get sunburnt as a kid, but aside from protecting their precious skin, shades bring the ambient temperature in the play area down to a comfortable degree. They also protect play equipment from extreme weather, especially in our scorching hot summer days. Do you remember running into a park as a kid, reeling towards a metallic slide glimmering temptingly in the distance, only to climb aboard and scold yourself on the burning metal? It’s not only disappointing for the child but potentially dangerous. Shade structures make play possible through rain and shine making for happier, healthier kids. And let’s not forget about parents, shade make supervision easier and more pleasant, facilitating a better atmosphere all round.

How do they compare?

The types of shade structures vary from light and tensile to more substantial and complex. Shade sails are made-to-order and offer both simplicity and versatility, along with protection from the extreme weather we get in Australia. Although they may not offer as much shade as a hard roofed structure, they’re built according to their own cooling system where warm air rises and disappears through the gaps in the shade. Skillion and hard roofed structures are also engineered in such a way that they don’t trap heat but keep the air at an ideal temperature. These heavier more expensive structures provide better protection not just from the sun but from the rain and wind. Your choice of shading options will depend on practical and aesthetic considerations to suit your unique commercial play equipment.